Mike says -

“When Dougie Hewat and I arrived at City Park around 10.30 this morning we were delighted to see the pitch was 100% playable. The temperature was on the up and any frost had already left the ground so we were able to re-accustomed our players to playing on grass for the first time since last October.  With Kerr Dodds and Jack Beesley carrying injuries, Dr Seeley studying for exams and John Grant unavailable we made the teams up with half a dozen of our promising Under 19 squad. It was a great exercise with a lot of goals and good football. It was also a chance for Sam and myself to check the conveyor belt to see how lucky we are to have such a good youth set up at Spartans.

Directly after our morning game I phoned Keith Anderson to confirm that the game Sam and I intended to take in (Tynecastle v Whitehill) was still on.  When I was told every East of Scotland game was off bar one three things struck me.

1) Why are games put off due to frost early on a Saturday morning when it’s obvious it’s getting milder and even by 11.00 when we played parks will be 100% playable?

2) Why when only 2 teams in East of Scotland football have a 3G surface and a cold spell is forecast does only one of the teams get a home fixture especially when the fixtures have been rearranged less that a week before and a cold snap is forecast?

3) Maybe EH5 is a bit like the Bermuda Triangle where if you ever find it a milder climate is the norm. Perhaps I should move my holiday home from Santa Ponsa to Ainslie Park.”

Mike  

Mike says -

“Sam and I will hopefully use tomorrow to remind our players what grass feels like. We haven’t played, trained or touched a ball on the original green stuff since Saughton Enclosure last October and tomorrow we’ll have a game with our boys and some of the Under 19′s making up the teams. We are away at Fernieside a week tomorrow and we’d better get use to the way football is played away from the Academy.

The weather forecast last Sunday was always pointing to it being very cold come this weekend. When early in the week I saw that the fixture list had been changed on the East of Scotland website I stupidly thought that the first place to get a game would be the only place liable to pass the scrutiny of a referee tomorrow. As things stand there will be no East of Scotland fixture at the Academy tomorrow but there will be numerous games played on both pitches on Saturday and Sunday.  The temperature is slowly on the rise but what chance anywhere else beating the weather?”

Mike

The Wise Group who managed the Enterprise Growth Fund award process have published a brief film about the fund and our work at the Academy. The link is

Scotland’s Finance Minister John Swinney visited the Academy yesterday to announce £6m of funding from the Enterprise Growth Fund across around 50 projects in Scotland. We will receive £150,000 as part of the funding on our extension. We will be choosing the extension contractor next week and the work is due to start in early March. The extension will have two new changing rooms to help increase usage on the pitches while the clubroom will be doubled in size to enable us to really extend our Youth work provision.
The announcement has been covered in the Evening News and on STV.

http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/politics/spartans_secure_funding_boost_to_expand_facilities_1_2089522

http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/news/295722-football-charity-to-receive-150000-funding/

The 19s had a convincing 9 – 1 win over Coldstream with 4 goals from Jordan Finnie, 2 apiece from Haydn Crane and Callum Donnelly and 1from James Cuthbertson.
The Sunday Amateurs had a great 1 – 0 win to reach the last 16 of he Sunday Scottish Amateur Cup with Mark Dawson scoring.

Mike says -

“Considering who wasn’t in our starting 11 yesterday Sam and I have to be more than pleased with both the performance and the result against Duns. There was a full bus load up from the Borders and we knew the occasion and the surroundings would lift Neil Oliver’s side. They were well organised and although on the defensive for long spells they managed to force a good number of corners, mostly in the first half. They kept trying to play football for the 90 minutes and both on and off the park they look like being an asset to East of Scotland football.

It was good to see young Jordan Finnie fit effortlessly into the side and I suppose Dean Hoskin’s hat-trick may be what will stick in the mind of those at the game and those hearing about it. The highlight for Sam and myself however was the shut-out. Before yesterday we had won 17 of the 22 games we have played this season and only achieving 3 clean sheets isn’t enough.  Sometimes we have started slowly and other times we have lost concentration defensively as a team when we’ve gone a couple ahead.  We can still improve our goals from chances created but more importantly we must try to shut the shop at the back more often over the important 4 months to come.

Unless they chance the fixtures next Saturday due to the number of postponements yesterday we’ll have a blank weekend. Sam and I will make sure that our boys get their first kick of a football on grass since last October before our visit to Fernieside the following Saturday. More on that later in the week.”

Mike

The 19s take on Coldstream in a league game at the Academy with a 3pm ok while the Sunday Amateurs try again with their last 32 Scottish Cup game in Larkhall.